Arctic Imagination 2.0

What kind of future can we imagine in a warmer North? Royal Danish Library is focusing on the situation in the Arctic through a new transatlantic collaboration with the SPHERE festival in Canada.

Hot air balloon on the ice in 1897

Photo: Knut Frænkel

Published 14 September 2022 | Revision 11 February 2025

In 2018, Royal Danish Library collaborated with the Consulate General in New York on the Arctic Imagination event series. We focused on the disappearing ice in the Arctic.

In connection with the large international Nordic Bridges project, Royal Danish Library now participates with Arctic Imagination 2.0 format. There continues the legacy of our transatlantic cooperation in 2017-2018.

Nordic Bridges is a Nordic cultural exchange project initiated by the Nordic Ministers of Culture - which this year takes place between the Nordic countries and Canada. Arctic Imagination is anchored in two places: in Copenhagen at Royal Danish Library and at the SPHERE festival in Canada's capital, Ottawa, where Royal Danish Library has allied itself with The National Arts Center and the Canadian Museum of Nature.

The programme in Copenhagen consists of two or three events in the Black Diamond's Queen's Hall, where world renowned names in dialogue with high-profile Nordic interviewers will discuss and try to imagine a future in a much warmer North, the climate crisis, the progress of change and the disappearance of the ice in the Arctic.

Building on experiences from the collaboration with the New York Public Library

Arctic Imagination 2.0 follows up on the first edition of Arctic Imagination, which was held in 2017 and 2018. Libraries in New York, Nuuk, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oslo then joined forces and combined their experience and creativity into one unified platform. The world's most pressing theme was discussed in conversations between artists on the library stages.

More than 20 events were held in both Scandinavia and at the New York Public Library. These were prominent names such as Olafur Eliasson (IS/DK), Laurie Anderson (US), Naomi Klein (CA), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (DK), Kim Leine (DK), Sørine Steenholdt (GL), Paul Holdengräber (US) , and Laurent Fabius (FR) with several other contributors.

Part of SPHERE I Canada

Now Arctic Imagination will once again focus on the disappearance of the ice in the Arctic in collaboration with the festival SPHERE, LISTENING TO THE EARTH at Canada's National Arts Centre. Through a series of talks and concerts, the dramatic changes in the Arctic will be illuminated - also in relation to how the crisis affects our artistic and intellectual understanding of the world.

LISTENING TO THE EARTH therefore focuses on the importance of listening to our surroundings in a time of climate crisis and loss of biodiversity. The festival programme in Ottawa includes concerts with Canadian and Nordic musicians and composers, a series of Arctic Imagination talks, audio walks in the city, art exhibitions and sensory installations with scientific starting points, spreading across locations at both the National Arts Center and the Canadian Museum of Nature.

Live stream our events

You can follow from home when our Arctic Imagination 2.0 events take place. Find the individual events below.